Taking the Kids for a
Walk on the Wild Side: An Interview With Sharon Andersonby Carol Bedrosian

I met Sharon Anderson
for the first time at Harvest Gathering in 1997 at Mt. Washington, MA.
Living in upstate Vermont near the Canadian border, Sharon had traveled
many hours alone by car to attend the gathering and she arrived close to
dark with a dozen or so twenty-foot teepee poles attached to the top of
her Volvo station wagon. As the coordinator for the gathering, I knew
Sharon planned to set up a replication of an authentic nineteenth century
encampment, including a wigwam that she would be staying in during the
weekend, so I was quite concerned when she arrived so late that darkness
was falling, she would need help with setting up the poles and teepee and
I could find no volunteers around to help.CLICK
TO READ

There Once Was A World:
A 900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of EishyshokThe Quest For Eishyshok:
Restoring A Vanished Past
by Yaffa Eliach

In August 1979 I was on my way to Russia,
in the midst of a fact-finding mission to Eastern Europe. As a member of
President Carter's Holocaust Commission, which was charged with making a
recommendation for an appropriate United States memorial to the victims of
the Holocaust, I had spent several days traveling to the various capitals
of the Holocaust Kingdom—Warsaw, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and
Plaszow among them. Now, flying south of Vilna (Vilnius), on a plane from
Warsaw to Kiev, I became aware that somewhere beneath the clouds lay the
town of Eishyshok, home to the early years of my brief, interrupted
childhood.

There are so many controversies on whether some ingredients in pet
products are the main reason why our dogs seem to be developing so many
strange illnesses, rashes and allergies. Before I go on, I just want to
point out that there are two sides to every coin and that we must look at
both sides. With that said, here is a general look at the most common pet
grooming practices and products.

Anyone
who watches even the slightest amount of TV is familiar with the scene: An agent knocks on the door of
some seemingly ordinary home or office. The door opens, and the person
holding the knob is asked to identify himself. The agent then says,
"I'm going to ask you to come with me."

The Secret To Eliminating
The Root Of Your Problems: Physical, Social Or Financialby Bob Olson, OfSpirit.com
Editor

Every
few years, I stumble upon something so powerful and enlightening
that it rocks my world, totally changing my perception and
understanding of life. Recently I had one of those rare
life-altering experiences. I couldn’t wait to get home and write
about it.

Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your
perspective. The message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all
can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of
cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese?
is a parable that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that
maze: Sniff and Scurry are mice--nonanalytical and nonjudgmental,
they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get
it. Hem and Haw are "littlepeople," mouse-size humans who
have an entirely different relationship with cheese. It's not just
sustenance to them; it's their self-image. Their lives and belief
systems are built around the cheese they've found. Most of us
reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our
livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work
in--although it can stand for anything, from health to
relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to
changes in the cheese, and be prepared to go running off in search
of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.

Dr. Johnson, coauthor of The
One Minute Manager and many other books, presents this parable
to business, church groups, schools, military
organizations--anyplace where you find people who may fear or resist
change. And although more analytical and skeptical readers may find
the tale a little too simplistic, its beauty is that it sums up all
natural history in just 94 pages: Things change. They always have
changed and always will change. And while there's no single way to
deal with change, the consequence of pretending change won't happen
is always the same: The cheese runs out. --Lou Schuler,
Amazon.com

OfSpirit.com'sIn The Spotlight

Sometimes Blame Is Just Our Own Responsibility In Disguise

by Bob Olson, OfSpirit.com
Editor

In an
effort to keep up with the times and
compete in the major media arena, we made the decision to start
using more celebrities in our magazine. We didn’t have the budget
to pay for famous movie stars, so we dressed up a pig in fancy
sunglasses instead. We figured that people would focus on the movie
star sunglasses and not notice what was really behind the garb.
Unfortunately, no matter how much we disguised the pig to look like
a movie star, it was still just a pig in fancy sunglasses.

This is an article
about taking personal responsibility for our own lives. When we stop
blaming others for the negative outcomes in our life, we can learn
and grow from each experience. Disguising our own responsibility by
placing the focus on other people inhibits our ability to learn from
our experiences.

For twelve years, I
investigated accidents as a private investigator for personal injury
attorneys. There is a lot of finger pointing going on in the world
of personal injury lawsuits. I had one case where some parents sued
a skateboard manufacturer because their child fell off the
skateboard. Another person blamed a ladder manufacturer because he
fell off his ladder. I even had a case where a guy was suing a
chainsaw manufacturer because he cut through his leg instead of the
tree. In all three cases, the juries came to the same conclusion: it
was an obviously foreseeable accident. The juries said that the
plaintiffs assumed responsibility when they climbed the potentially
dangerous ladder, used the potentially dangerous chainsaw and
allowed their child to play with the potentially dangerous
skateboard.

My friend recently
told me about a computer virus she received by email. She blamed her
colleague for emailing it to her. What she didn’t realize was that
the virus took over her colleague’s computer and sent emails to
everyone in his address book. It was the virus “creator” who
sent her the email, not her friend.

If my friend took
responsibility for her own computer virus, she may have learned from
the experience to take preventative measures against future viruses:
to install some virus prevention software or to stop opening
attached email files. Instead, her focus was on blaming her
colleague and she learned nothing.

My father died five
years ago from lung cancer. Shortly before his death, someone
discovered that an x-ray had been taken years prior that showed the
beginning of his cancerous tumor. His doctor had not seen the tumor,
and it went undiscovered until it was too late.

My father's lawyer
friend told him he had a solid medical malpractice case against the
doctor who overlooked the revealing x-ray that might have saved his
life. My father looked at his friend and said, “But that’s the
same doctor who encouraged me to stop smoking for twelve years, yet
I didn’t listen. I can’t blame him for something I did to
myself.” Perhaps we have the most clarity when our lives are about
to end.

Sometimes other
people really are to
blame for the negative occurrences in our life. But sometimes our
finger pointing is just a disguise to take the focus off ourselves.
Wisdom comes in knowing the difference. If you are playing the blame
game, take a step back to refocus your attention. If you are
diverting attention from your own responsibility, you are missing
out on an opportunity to learn and grow. Disguised responsibility is
known as blame. You can dress up a pig in fancy sunglasses, but
underneath the brilliant disguise, all you really have is a pig.

Boston's famed psychic medium, John
Holland,will demonstrate how his
abilities enable him to open the link with loved ones who have
passed on to the other side. A major part of the evening will be
devoted to audience readings!

August 9th at Hancock United Church, Lexington, MA. Sponsored
by the Ninth House, Arlington, MA. For more info call (781)646-1817.
Mention that you read about this event on OfSpirit.com.

August 24: Meditate
for Peace

Join Dr. Trish Whynot in exploring blocks to being at
peace.Whether it is inner peace,
peace in the family, at the workplace or world peace that you are
seeking, this workshop is for you! Explore what may be
blocking you from being at peace and join with the energies of other
peace-seekers in a powerful meditation for peace. 978-314-4545: Click
for website

August 24 & 25: Spirit Drawings With Psychic Medium, Rita Berkowitz

Imagine having a medium who
has never met you actually draw a picture of the deceased loved-one she
has linked with from the spirit world.
Call
Angel's Loft, East Bridgewater, MA 508-378-3350 for the
24th and Beau Jesaniel, Nashua, NH, 603-598-7546 for the 25th.

September
7 - 9: Harvest Gathering,Native American & Mayan Teachings

Change &
Improve Your Life In One Magical Weekend. Do you do the same things
every weekend yet wish your life could be different? Invest two
days of your life for a new-found sense of well-being, a deeper
understanding of the one-ness of your natural world, and the
beginning of a lifestyle change that could lead to health & happiness for the rest of your life.

Boston's
famed psychic medium, John Holland,will
demonstrate how his abilities enable him to open the link with loved
ones who have passed on to the other side. A major part of the
evening will be devoted to audience readings! This Live
demonstration and lecture will be held at Unitarian
Universalist Church, Locke Street, Andover, MA. 7 pm to 9 pm. Call
Circles of Wisdom 978-474-8010 to pre-register your tickets. Mention that you read about this event on
OfSpirit.com.

September/October:
Living With Vision: Creating The Life You Want From The Inside Out

A six week group for
exploring and realizing your vision led by Linda Marks author ofLiving With Vision: Reclaiming The Power Of Your Heart.

Evening class format from 7:30 - 9:30
pm in Newtonville, MA. To register or for more information,
call (617)965-7846 or e-mail LSMHEART@aol.com

Thanks to Time Warner Bookmark, we have
five more books to
give you. This time you have the opportunity to win Stacey Wolf's new book,
Get Psychic! - Discover Your Hidden Powers—a
fun book to help you discover your hidden psychic powers.

Just send us an email and at the end
of the month—Friday, August 31, 2001—we will draw five random
names from a hat (or box) who will each win a copy of this
awesome book.